Good on these guys. They knew that a huge windfall like that, without planning, can be disastrous. So they waited years until they absolutely HAD to get the extra cash. I think two guys who have that kind of fortitude and ability to delay gratification will do quite well with the money.

FTFA: Unlike winning tickets for games such as Lotto and Mega Million that expire in a year, tickets for scratch-off games expire a year after a game is retired. The Extravaganza game was retired on March 12, 2011, Hapeman said.

Rincewind53:Good on these guys. They knew that a huge windfall like that, without planning, can be disastrous. So they waited years until they absolutely HAD to get the extra cash. I think two guys who have that kind of fortitude and ability to delay gratification will do quite well with the money.

I agree... they don't seem like the type to blow the money on customized double-wides with gold fixtures and Lamborghinis with rebel flag paint jobs. Actually they may be better off getting the money now than in 2006. At the time, the hot investment was sub-prime mortgage derivatives (and we all know how well that turned out).

It was convenient that they bought it in their own store. Supposedly whenever a winner is bought by someone related to a retailer they do an investigation. I wonder how long the investigation took? A year?

Fo Shiz:It was convenient that they bought it in their own store. Supposedly whenever a winner is bought by someone related to a retailer they do an investigation. I wonder how long the investigation took? A year?

I'm going to guess seven months, the time between when they turned in the ticket and the time this story was posted.

Are these tickets pre-printed and delivered to the store, which then sells them? I'm wondering if perhaps the parents' store had a stack of these lying around and realized they were worthless, so they "sold" them to their son? Am I a crazy conspiracy theorist?

There's only two ways that seem possible.1) They found a way to read the tickets without scratching them off.2) A customer won and brought it back to the store, they stole it from the customer, and the customer never complained about it.

BoxOfBees:Are these tickets pre-printed and delivered to the store, which then sells them? I'm wondering if perhaps the parents' store had a stack of these lying around and realized they were worthless, so they "sold" them to their son? Am I a crazy conspiracy theorist?

scratch offs are, but lets say through some glitch a bunch of tickets sat in the back room for years. For that to happen the lottery would have had to receive payment for them, so the store, the family owned them. they bought them. Which makes this a fortunate error, because I doubt a business intentionally takes a hit on the hope there's a big winner in the bunch.

Madman drummers bummers:Godamnlimey: Would have made more sense to cash the ticket right away and bank the interest for 5 years

What is this "interest" of which you speak?

It's when your eyebrows go up slightly. There's a house for sale just down the street from me and the agent guy is asking for expressions of interest on it. It sucks, I don't want all these mimes coming through my neighbourhood with giant ladders. Probably at least half of them will accidentally take their imagination ladders and then do that ridiculous "climbing nowhere" crap that they do. They take so long to set them up. It's like, "F*ck you, mime, a real ladder doesn't even take that long to set up, and there's no reason to purse your stupid lips. Pretend suicide off the top, you f*cker." I'm angry just thinking about it. We're good people here, we don't need their kind whimsying up the suburb.

I'm surprised that there's not more criminal effort expended toward "seeing through" the scratch-off coating, using different wavelengths of light, maybe figuring out a way to look through the "back" side of the card instead. Hell, I'd be trying ultrasonic sensors too. I can't believe that there's *nothing* that can penetrate that coating and give a distinctive return based on the pattern of ink underneath.

leadmetal:BoxOfBees: Are these tickets pre-printed and delivered to the store, which then sells them? I'm wondering if perhaps the parents' store had a stack of these lying around and realized they were worthless, so they "sold" them to their son? Am I a crazy conspiracy theorist?

scratch offs are, but lets say through some glitch a bunch of tickets sat in the back room for years. For that to happen the lottery would have had to receive payment for them, so the store, the family owned them. they bought them. Which makes this a fortunate error, because I doubt a business intentionally takes a hit on the hope there's a big winner in the bunch.

Not that I care, just wondering whether the owners of the store are allowed to front the money for the tickets and then say "all your tickets are belong to us." I guess I assumed that the store owners are acting as agents of the lottery and that they actually have to sell the tickets to people in the store for them to be valid.

I'd google it and put in the link, but I just don't care that much... so, go do a google search for "scratch off ticket fraud" and the few of you that think the store might have "sold" the winning ticket in a very lucky break, you will see that depending on the type of game, they might have easily known when they were buying a winner and when they were not. Especially since this ticket is from 6 years ago.

FunkOut:That's the worst part about getting rich. Suddenly having to be concerned about taxes and other boring things. And you're no longer excited to hear Pizza Pops are 2 for the price of 1 at Safeway.

i think many people would be thrilled to go grocery shopping and buy whatever they damn well please. it might even take a while for them to get used to it.

when i was a young man my goal was to hit the Lottery, buy a huge liquor warehouse and have the windows boarded up so I could drink in peace.

KrispyKritter:when i was a young man my goal was to hit the Lottery, buy a huge liquor warehouse and have the windows boarded up so I could drink in peace.

Hell, I want to do that now in a Lowe's or a Home Depot. Just walk around and buy all the cool toys you want. I know most will never be used, but I would have a home workshop that makes Norm Abram look like a pussy.

The state of Washington periodically takes winning tickets into a lottery retailer, then has the clerk cash them. When the clerk says "it's not a winner", they take away the license. That is one way that this pair may have acquired the so-called "winning ticket".

ozarkmatt:KrispyKritter: when i was a young man my goal was to hit the Lottery, buy a huge liquor warehouse and have the windows boarded up so I could drink in peace.

Hell, I want to do that now in a Lowe's or a Home Depot. Just walk around and buy all the cool toys you want. I know most will never be used, but I would have a home workshop that makes Norm Abram look like a pussy.

I'm 33, and if growing "older" has brought me any wisdom at all, they have been in the form of strategies for getting locked into a Toy'r'Us overnight.

so he purchased the ticket from his parents store and then waited years to cash it, i wonder if maybe that has something to do with not cashing it. What i am saying is either the ticket was stolen from one of there customers and they waited a long time so it would blow over or they found some way to figure out which tickets are winners.